SBI and NTPC both received Rs 2,500 crore each while Bank of India got Rs 1,650 crore, according to the provisional data available with the tax authorities, an income tax official told ET.

In contrast, the refunds to private companies were lower. "The estimation of income and taxes is seen as slightly lax in PSEs...," said a senior partner with one of the big four consulting firms.

There is also a feeling that the state-run firms usually pay up higher advance tax than they are liable to help the government meet any shortfall in tax collections.

However, another income tax official said the issue is more about aggressive tax planning by the private sector companies.

The Rs 2,500 crore cheque will certainly be timely for the State Bank of India, which has seen its profits decline sharply and is in urgent need of capital infusion to achieve an end year tier-1 capital adequacy ratio of 8%.

The front loading of tax refunds has skewed the fiscal management as net direct tax collections growth has been only 8.63 % up to November, but the government expects an improvement in situation from December onwards.

Till last year the tax refunds were issued in the second half of the financial year. Fiscal deficit at the end of October was 74.4% of the budget estimates as against the five year moving average of 54.6%.

Front loading of refunds has not only being pursued as a policy initiative but also due to expeditious processing.

But despite expeditious refunds, provisional data shows that as many as 19.41 lakh returns were pending as on October 1, 2011, indicating that the outgo on account of refunds may go up further.

Tax authorities say frontloading refunds helped the government save on the interest costs that amounted to about Rs 10,000 crore in 2010-11.